This 6-page policy brief summarises the findings of Accord 25 - Legitimacy and peace processes: from coercion to consent. It argues that a legitimacy lens should be applied to peace processes by paying attention to priorities of context, consent and change.

A new survey conducted by Conciliation Resources and the US-based Alliance for Peacebuilding, has found strong backing among Britons for the idea of engaging with armed groups – including those labelled as proscribed terrorist organisations – in order to resolve conflicts around the world.

After nearly 60 years of conflict, the Basque separatist group ETA has announced its decision to lay down its weapons by April 8. Our Colombia Programme Director Kristian Herbolzheimer has been discussing the role of civil society in disarmament in the Basque Country with Al Jazeera English

A suggested further reading list on reconciliation and dealing with legacies of violence, with sections focusing on the Accord Insight 3's four case study contexts - the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict, Colombia, Mindanao (Philippines) and Northern Ireland.

Duncan Morrow discusses how reconciliation has provided a crucial direction for efforts to move away from violent conflict towards peaceful partnership in Northern Ireland, shaping and being sustained in large part by a wide variety of grassroots interventions.

Whilst there has been relatively little conceptual development of reconciliation in recent times, there has been a marked increase in applied focus on reconciliation frameworks and approaches in a range of conflict contexts.